Bucs Hold Evening Session, Training Camp Day 1: Deep Ball Focus

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Training Camp: Day 1 Night Practice Raymond James, 8/1/09  

Bucs Focus on the Deep Ball:

The first evening practice for Buccaneers training camp was held in Raymond James Stadium Saturday evening at 6:30. The practice was open and free to the public and the fans showed up in good number to show support for their Bucs.

The practice was mostly dominated with offense/defense passing drills and 7 on 7 drills. The fans were brought to their feet many times on deep balls from Luke McCown and Byron Leftwich and intrigued by the progress of the newly signed rookie Josh Freeman.

Head Coach Raheem Morris said of the morning session at One Buc Place, “ It was an up and down practice but we learned plenty of good things. Stay behind our pads, keep our pad levels low, and since we are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers we go full pads on the first day unlike other teams. We like contact down here.”

Morris also said about his players in the heat in pads, “We embrace the heat, when people think we are dumb for having no night games, I respond by pointing out the fact that we will be used to it and they will come in and get tortured. The heat will be our friend when teams are not used to it and come to play a 1pm game. We embrace it.”

Jim Bates the Defensive Coordinator had this to add, “We worked hard this morning in one on one Lineman drills in order to work on strength, power, and speed. There is a lot of competition out here for spots and the attitude and feel at camp is really good.” Also added a smart remark about how the defense would be kicking the offense's butt in the upcoming drills during the night practice.

In a rebuttal to Bates' remarks the Offensive Coordinator, Jeff Jagodzinski, stepped to the microphone and stated, “We (the offense) will continue to kick the defense's ass as we did all morning. We will focus on running the ball to set up  play action deep balls. We are not going to be shy throwing the deep ball and will be doing it quite a bit this year. We burnt the defensive backs many times in the morning practice and plan on continuing to do so in tonight's practice.”

The quarterbacks stepped up in the evening with a few deep balls and overall good plays. There were some inconsistency issues but those would seem to get ironed out as training camp progresses. McCown started the 7on7 drills and also in the Team Passing drill in an 11on11 set with the number one offense. Leftwich ran with the second team and Freeman with the third.

Quarterback production in 7on7 drills:

McCown-Looked steady completing most of his passes, as well as a deep ball down the sideline to Antonio Bryant for a touchdown. He made good reads and check downs and looked comfortable in the pocket.

Leftwich-Completed a deep ball to Michael Clayton for 60 yards as well as a few medium range passes. Leftwich had a few passes that he overthrew and had a few bad reads. He also was sacked twice and had a little trouble moving away from danger.

Freeman-Connected on a few short outs and slants but had a little trouble completing easy passes. Freeman had a little trouble making the right reads in some cases and seemed to force the ball when pressured. Freeman threw an interception in the middle of the field but it looked like a miscommunication with the wide out more than a poor throw.

Quarterback production in Team Passing Drills, session 1: One series each rotation-

McCown:

Completed pass underneath to Antonio Bryant for 5 yards.

Deep out incomplete too tall for Michael Clayton.

Incomplete short middle to Dexter Jackson.

Punt ends series

Leftwich:

Complete to Jeremy Stevens out route for 5 yards.

Deep ball intended for Jackson overthrown and intercepted by Elbert Mack.

Turnover ends series.

Freeman:

Deep seem route down the middle to Kellen Winslow for a 50 yard Touchdown.

Touchdown ends series.

Second Series:

McCown:

Completed out route to Kellen Winslow for 5 yards.

Play action incomplete because of blitz pressure.

McCown Touchdown on a slant to Antonio Bryant.

Touchdown ends series.

Leftwich:

Deep throw on a corner route for 40 yards.

Deep corner route to Sammie Stroughter for a Touchdown.

Touchdown ends series.

Freeman:

Incompletion over the head of his intended wide receiver.

Quarterback production in Team Passing Drills, session 2:

McCown:

Derrick ward run to right side for 5 yards.

Deep ball thrown out of bounds over the head of Dexter Jackson.

Underneath throw to Stevens for 5 yards.

Punt ends Series.

Leftwich:

Leftwich pumped and threw into double coverage, ball was batted and then dropped.

Roll out left by Leftwich and threw a 60 yard strike to Maurice Stovall.

Touchdown ends series.

McCown:

McCown broke the pocket and rushed for 5 yards.

Pass to Winslow dropped on an out route.

Roll out left throw to Dexter Jackson who layed out and made a great catch.

Punt ends series.

Leftwich:

Bad throw down the middle into double coverage interception dropped by defense.

Dumped off to Kareem Huggins for 5 yard gain.

Run up the middle by Josh Vaughan for 3 yards.

Punt end series.

Kellen Winslow:

The Buccaneer faithful should be very pleased after what was seen at practice between Winslow and all three of the quarterbacks. He was targeted many times and connected with rookie quarterback Josh Freeman on a deep ball down the middle that resulted in a Touchdown. Winslow seems to be off to a great start in a new town and with a new team.

Quarterbacks:

The Quarterbacks showed some improvement from what they had done at mini camp about one month ago. The deep ball seemed to be working for Mccown and Leftwich as they both completed a few long TD passes a piece. Leftwich made some very good throws during role outs to his right including a 70 yard throw to Stovall. This throw was the highlight of the whole practice and was a very encouraging sign for Leftwich who is known to have limited mobility. McCown also completed deep balls to his top targets Antonio Bryant and Dexter Jackson. McCown made less mistakes than Leftwich, but Leftwich seemed to have a tendency for the big play.

Freeman looked a little shaky and unsure about his reads at times. However he completed a deep ball to the newly acquired tight end Kellen Winslow, which was an outstanding sign. Freeman also used the running backs as check downs and made some good short throws. Freeman looks as though he is set to be on the bench at the beginning of the season as of now, but it is a long camp and he could make a charge at the starting spot. One thing is clear, Coaches and ownership seem to be ready for Freeman to start as soon as he possibly could giving him the Franchise Quarterback tag.

Running Backs:

Offensive Line Coach Pete Mangurian preached building on the morning practice with the Team Run drill. He stressed, “We need to work on toughness, pad level, and ball security with our backs. Our offense is going to be based on the running game so we can open up defenses for play action deep balls. The Offensive as well as the Defensive Lines are one of the most crucial parts of the team and we must perform.”

There are many running backs who can make an impact in the Buccaneers offense in 2009. Among these backs are Derrick Ward, Earnest Graham, Cadillac Williams and Clifton Smith who will look to make a big impact this football season. Smith and Williams will look to specialize in the return game as well as get carries out of the backfield. Cadillac is back for the first time in a year and looked good carrying the ball out of the backfield. He broke about a 25 yard run from scrimmage during the drill and the crowd applauded his efforts with much enjoyment.

Ward, who came over from the Giants is a large back with good speed and vision. He looks to be in the number one role and carry the load in the 2009 season.

Graham, who was the savior last year will look to spoil Ward's plans and take carries from him to make the backfield more of a committee style backfield.

The Coaching staff has a very tough situation to decide amount of carries for each player. The Bucs actually may have found themselves in a rough spot with so many talented back in the backfield. They will look to spread the wealth as well as use Cadillac and Smith as return men during the season to keep everyone happy with their touches. Having too many talented running backs is a great problem to have.

Defense:

The defense had an up and down day at practice today. They are young and quick for the most part and look to be very excited to be playing football. The defense blew some coverages on deep balls in the 7on7 drills as well as the Team Passing drills. The defense however had multiple pass breakups as well as interceptions during practice. There were also a few instances were sacks would have been inevitable if it was full contact.

Overall the defense, lead by Barrett Ruud, seems to be coming along nicely. In only the first day of training camp they seem to be making big plays and holding down coverages well. Only on a few occasions were defensive backs beat on long balls and more often than not they were in the right coverages to make the plays.

Kickers:

The kicking situation is still up in the air. Both Mike Nugent and Matt Bryant were kicking field goals during the special teams period. They both made all their kicks and participated in kickoff coverage as well. The Bucs most likely will not carry both kickers into the regular season and Nugent seemed to have the edge heading in training camp but with them both having the same amount of reps it is unclear. The Bucs will probably make a decision earlier rather than later in training camp to free up the roster spot.

Main Story:

Overall the big story out of training camp is the competition at Quarterback. When the decision is made who the starting quarterback will be the team will be able to rally behind that person and begin planning for the season.

If the decision is not made until late in training camp, the team is unsure about what the game plan for the season will be. Being unsure can lead to many disappointments and pointing of fingers.

The decision in the quarterback battle needs to be made sooner rather than later to ensure the unity of the team. This said the coaches will obviously not rush into any decision in naming the starting quarterback and will wait and see how they progress as camp moves forward.

McCown and Leftwich seem to be the front runners with fans and coaches hoping for Freeman to somehow become ready to play starting week 1. Freeman looked far from ready to start in tonights practice but the coaching staff seem to be working hard to bring him up to speed. One thing is clear, Freeman has been signed for $36 million to play, not sit the bench. When he is ready, he will play.